Great Salem Fire of 1914

Quoting Salem State University about the Great Salem Fire of 1914:

On June 25, 1914 fire broke out in the Korn leather factory at 57 Boston Street in Salem and was quickly carried by high winds across the city. By dawn the next morning the blaze had finally been quenched, but much of Salem lay in ruins. Single houses, apartment blocks, tenements, shoe and leather factories, and the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Mill had been consumed by the flames, leaving only brick chimneys standing as sentinels across the cityscape.

Snap of map from
salemfocus.com (stale) 

The University is sponsoring, on June 20 and 21, A Centennial Symposium (see Program - stale pointer) and has provided some facts (stale pointer) related to the fire. For instance, over 1,300 buildings were burnt. 18,000 persons were displaced. It is estimated that a million came to view the fire.

The Nelson Dionne (stale pointer) Collection of photographs (see images on Google) will be on display during the Symposium.

The map shows the extent of the fire which started in the industrial district (top) and ran down toward the water. Many historic buildings were threatened. The fire came right up to area of the witch house.

We will look at this further, such as paying more attention to those burnt areas using older maps.

Remarks: Modified: 4/11/2024

06/04/2014 - Nelson shared a lot of his photos with me. I will see if there is a collection that is visible on-line. In the meantime, the list of photos shown by Google tells a whole lot.

06/18/2014 -- Reminder at Creative Salem (stale).

08/12/2018 -- Thomas, with others on Gardner Hill, was left where he was. Stones were moved over to Harmony Grove Cemetery. A few of those withstood the move, say that for Seeth. Most did not and are piled somewhere. At the burial site, though, the road was cut through. So, the remains? Well, moved to God only knows. Or, if the burial was away from the road, it is beneath some structure. Lots to think about. Reflect on. How to proceed into this mire?

01/04/2019 -- This topic will be followed more regularly this year (344th of 29 December 1674). We will initiate a discussion on WikiTree (see link in sidebar) in support of the research.

03/02/2019 -- We building an index by images for our portal to truth.

04/11/2024 -- Used for LA post on FB (removed links that were stale).